Pretty in Black
by stodgysays
Summary: A 90's reunion between Steff/Andie. Steff still can't let it go.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey guys. I'll catch up later." He looked over at a fashion showroom on Madison Avenue as a group of men in suits kept walking on. One flashed his middle finger in his direction. Steff McKee's eye fixed on the girl laying out a sheet of fabric on a table. Her auburn hair was slicked back revealing her profile to him. Steff immediately recognized her. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it while still oggling. When she turned her head to look out the window, her face showed a slow sign of recognition before he saw her mouth his name. _Steff_

He walked to the entrance went through. Andie Walsh already stood there silently creating her battle plan. She wore a mid-length black spaghetti strap dress over a tight t shirt. A simple black ribbon was tied around her neck. "What are you doing here?" she asked curtly.

"I have an internship for a broker in the city this summer. I saw you while I walking back from a business lunch." Steff balanced himself on the door frame.

"Yes. I can smell that business lunch on your breath. Did you bother to even eat or just have a liquid lunch? Now before you can call me a bitch, what do you want?"

"Chill, Andie. I just wanted to say hello. It surprised me to see you here. That's all. I'm allowed to be polite. I'd be a dick to just walk past without saying something." Steff's words should have surprised her but the delivery was the same as she expected.

"Here's my card in case you want to do something," Steff said handing her his business card. Before she could look up from reading it, he was already gone.

Andie saw the card out of the corner of her eye. She has placed it on her workspace. Her eyes rolled to the ceiling. Steff was the biggest asshole from high school. He harrassed her, embarrased her and controlled others around her to sway their favor from her. The other rich kids from school never got to Angie. Steff made her blood boil.

Her relationship with his best friend did not last but a month into college. She couldn't balance the course work and guilt of spending so little time, so she called it off with Blane. She didn't feel too bad about it, either.

Her eyes kept wandering to the card all that week. On Friday, after her shift she picked up the card deciding to throw it away. As she walked to the bin, she pocketed it at the last minute and exited the showroom.


	2. Chapter 2

"It's Steff." he answered his phone on the fourth ring. He was laying down on his bed balancing an ashtray on his knee.

Silence.

"It's you, isn't it Andie."

"Yes. I'm calling to let you know that I don't want to go out anytime and I'd appreciate if you..."

Steff cut her off, "Cut the crap. I'll pick you up tonight. You live in the loft above your showroom."

"Did you follow me?" Andie was flabbergasted.

"Yep...8 sharp." Steff said.

"Wait...Steff..." Andie heard a click on the line.

Steff straightened his suit and loosened his tie. His fingers ran through his still shaggy hair. He pushed the buzzer next to the name "A. Walsh".

"Yes." Andie's voice said.

"It's Steff. Come on down."

A minute or two later, Andie pushed through the side stairwell in a black t-shirt dress with a high slit up the thigh exposing a pair of fishnet stockings. She wore black leather booties adorned with metallic spikes. Her face only had light makeup despite the harshness of her ensemble.

"This is different." Steff remarked looking her up and down.

"I didn't come here to take any shit."

"Jeez Andie. I didn't say I didn't like it. You really need to relax." Steff smirked at her.

"Let's get this over with." Andie strapped on her vintage Chanel crossbody bag.

"We are just going for dinner. I'm serious, Andie, you can relax."

He opened the door to the black card as Andie slid in. He climbed in behind her and told the driver to head out.

"So tell me, Andie. How did you end up here?"

"After I graduated from Drexel, I interned with a designer that worked with LaCroix. He liked my designs and helped me set something up here. I wanted to move back home but my dad...wait why am I telling you all of this? What are we doing? Steff, you were such an ass in high school. Is this a sick joke?"

"Andie, I already know about your dad. My family owns the funeral home where you had him cremated. I bet it was relieving. You had to work at that record store all through high school to support him," Steff said.

"You don't know what you are talking about," she spat back.

"I made it my business to know. I wasn't lying when I said I liked you for 4 years. Well, like 8 now. I still think about it. So, you're doing well. Good. Your style has changed...for the better. Fashion school helped." Steff smirked at her again tracing his finger across the fishnets peaking through the slit that exposed her thigh.

Andie jerked her skirt down and looked straight ahead.

Steff continued, "Let's play a game"

"What?" she asked.

"I let you insult me all you want." Steff began.

Andie pursed her pouty lips.

"But, for each insult you owe me another date." Steff tugged on the hem of her dress and let it go tauntingly.

The car stopped and a moment later, the driver opened the door for her to get out. Steff led her to the stairwell leading to a restaurant. Grabbing the door for her, he whispered, "Yes or no?"

"Fine." Andie replied.

During dinner Steff talked loquaciously as Andie sat with her arms crossed. He talked about college, and his internship, and his future job on Wall Street that he already lined up after the summer. Andie looked bored even as she ate her fish dinner.

"Well, let's get you home, Eddie." Steff smiled knowing that would set her off.

Andie's eyes widened at him, but she remained silent.

The ride home felt uncomfortably long to her. Steff leaned up and told his driver to pull over.

"Ok. I get it. You don't want to be here. Or maybe you do. That's why you picked up the phone in the first place. Here, I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm trying to show you I'm not going to dick you over. You need to make a little effort."

"Steff, can you just please take me..." He cut her off by pressing his mouth to hers softly. He pulled back to look at her.

Andie's chest heaved up and down. Steff moved in again slowly dragging his lips over hers. Feeling her kiss him back, he continued pressing his lips to hers. He heard her sigh causing his hands to grip her thigh. With his usual boldness, he sucked on her bottom lip tugging it before breaking away from the kiss.

A pack of cigarettes appeared from his jacket pocket as he pulled one out using his teeth before offering one to Andie. She shooked her head no. She felt suprisingly calm considering she just kissed the person that made her stomach sour for all of high school. But, high school was long gone.

The driver took her home as she let Steff trace his fingers along the skin that peaked through her stockings. Occasionally, he would tilt her head over to his to kiss her again. The car rolled to a stop in front of the showroom and Andie leaned over to kiss Steff goodnight; her full lips firmly pressing his.

"Deep down, you're still shit." Andie said smirking.

"That's another date. See you tomorrow night."


	3. Chapter 3

Two dates later, Andie applies her lipstick and fixes her hair in the mirror while waiting for her bell to ring. When it does, Andie peers down expecting to see Steff suited up leaning against his car service. She mentally prepares herself for another chic restaurant and long car ride of making out. Steff had begun testing her boundaries on their last date by inching his hands higher and higher up her thighs to feel the material of her underwear before she told him to back down. "You're such a tease".

He turned her on more than she expected. Something about how he looked at her and his low voice invaded her thoughts at night as she brought herself to release. It became clear to her that she would sleep with him very soon. Blane was her first and inexperienced. Steff probably possessed more bedroom knowledge considering his rumored exploits.

The second buzz snaps her out of her thoughts, and she jogs down the stairs and walks out onto the sidewalk. Instead, he is pacing in khaki pants and a navy, pullover sweater. He runs his hands through his hair and smokes.

"Let's go," Steff says grabbing her hand.

"Where is the car?"

"We are walking to the subway." Steff is looking straight ahead pulling her along.

They get to the nearest station and walk toward the booth. "Come on. Put in the coin, already," Steff stammers impatiently. Andie glares at him as she does what she is told. He does the same and they enter the turnstiles. He grabs her hand again and starts pushing through the crowd to get on the needed train. They sit and Andie asks, "Where are we going?!"

"The Bronx. There is something I need to do."

After an hour long ride, he leads her up to the street, four blocks and to a filfthy parking lot. Prostitutes lean against the chainlink fence propositioning johns. Steff walks up to a man in a sleazy suit. Andie sees him pass him a large roll of bills.

Walking back to her, he looks at her for the first time all night. "Alright. That's done. Where should we eat?" Andie stands with her hands on her hips. "No."

"You know, I don't need any shit right now."

"Then, why are we here?"

He looks up letting out a slow breath. "I had to settle some coke debts for the brokers Downtown. The intern has to do all the shitty work. Do you see any hotshot Wall Street guys down here doing this?" Andie links her arm in his and leans her head against his shoulder in reassurance. _That must really stink for him_ , she scoffs to herself.

They eat gyros off the street on their way back to Manhattan. She thinks to herself how stabilizing the city is that two people with backgrounds like theres could join easily without any question. They walk around the city all night talking until finding themselves back in front of her loft.

She leans against the nearby wall, and Steff presses his forehead to hers holding her around the waist. Andie presses her mouth to his and says, "This was my favorite date so far."

"Watching me talk to a fucking dealer? I thought I had a hard-on for trash." Andie rolls her eyes and turns to unlock her loft. She goes through the door and he pushes it behind her, but she peaks her head out again and inquires, "Well, do you want to come up?"


	4. Chapter 4

p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Andie kept things pretty simple: a bed, dresser, couch, a drawing desk that doubled as a dining table, and the clutter of high school mementos confined to a box hidden at the bottom of her closet. It was not unlike Steff's own basic apartment except his furniture came with a higher price tag. He followed her up without second thought and began rummaging through the cabinets in search of something./p  
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p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Geez, Andie, how do you cope in this city?"/p  
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p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Steff walked over to her, and began, "I need to be clear about something. If I am going to fuck you tonight, it will be nothing like what you did with Blane. No foreplay or cuddling afterwards - just fucking, and you're gonna feel it tomorrow." /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Andie's cool exterior melted allowing her lips to part slightly. She nodded, and Steff took the opportunity to ram his tongue in her mouth and press her back on the bed. She reached down to unzip his pants while he bit at her neck. A foil packet appeared from his back pocket before his erection sprung free. Andie pulled her panties off and allowed Steff to position one leg over his shoulder after putting on the condom. /p  
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p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Andie looked away and said, "You should go," to which he replied, "I don't want to go. I need this thing with you to work. I really want it to work." He rolled off her and buried his head in the pillow./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Andie had a feeling of deja-vu. She hated that she was redemption for rich guilt. But she was falling for Steff and let him sleep./p  
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